Even if that is so, real estate experts say, don’t expect sales activity and prices to return to their peak anytime soon. Despite this year’s string of $100 million-plus sales, South Florida’s overall dollar volume remains more than two-thirds lower than 2007, when $12 billion in commercial transactions were sealed by Nov. 30.

“I think it says things are improving,” said Ben Thypin, senior market analyst for New York-based Real Capital Analytics. “People are becoming more confident with investment and trading, but it is tenuous.”

“Lenders who are now in control don’t have the appetite to manage or finish building these large resorts,” said Ben Thypin, an analyst at Real Capital Analytics Inc. in New York, adding that values for hotels and resorts may have bottomed out. “Private-equity firms are willing to get their hands dirty as long as they get in at a low price,” he said.

“I’m not surprised that they’re asking this much, but I’d be surprised if they sold for that much,” said Ben Thypin, an analyst at Real Capital. “They’re comfortable asking for this much because it’s a famous property.”

“They can afford to pay more for this building because they’re already the occupant,” said Ben Thypin, Real Capital senior market analyst. “A third party that wasn’t already a tenant might not have been able, actually definitely wasn’t able, to bid as high as they were.”

Ben Carlos Thypin

I am currently the co-founder of Quantierra, the world's first data driven real estate brokerage and investment manager. In my former life as Director of Market Analysis at Real Capital Analytics, I worked with press outlets large and small to provide them with great data and insightful commentary. Here are some of the results of this collaboration. For the rest, please check out the News Archive.